Kilmington had a cracking season on their way to promotion from C Division East of the competition, winning 16 of the 18 games they played, writes Conrad Sutcliffe.

At the heart of Kilmington’s title-winning campaign was opening batsman Gooding, who batted on and on all summer. He scored three hundreds in a grand total of 968 league runs at an average of 74.46 and was warmly applauded as he went up to receive his trophy.

Representatives of the 63 clubs who made it to the annual meeting at the Exeter Court Hotel near Kennford, were reminded by league chairman Nick Rogers in his presentation address that awards were open to players from any level of the league.

The same principal applies to the Bob Bridges Young Player of the Year trophy, which has previously been won by future England players Chris Read (1994), Mark Lathwell (1991) and both Overton twins, jointly in 2011.

The services to the league award was presented to former chairman David Gambie (Topsham), who remains an active member of the executive 10 years after standing down.

Title-winning team captains or club representatives from all 15 divisional winners collected championship trophies from Jim Mardell on behalf of league sponsors Tolchards Drinks.

Among the other awards handed out were captain-of-the-year trophies to Sandford’s Richard Foan and Hatherleigh’s Mark Lake, who won the award for the second year running.

Before awards were handed out, club representatives and league managers had to plough through annual reports from officials and a raft of proposed rule changes.

Members heard the league showed an operating surplus of £2,219 for the year, down from £5,280 in 2017. Decreased revenue from handbook advertising was largely to blame for the drop, although some alary costs had risen.

Rogers told members that the league was financially sound and had more than £36,000 in reserves.

“There will be no need for subscriptions to rise this year and the subsidy we provide for match balls will continue, said Rogers.

Some rule changes were agreed, such as earlier start times by agreement, some were rejected, such as Plymouth’s proposal to have tea after the game, and some involving registration changes held over to an EGM next April.

Richard Stevenson, the commercial officer for the league, gave a detailed verbal report about proposed cup competitions for 2019.

Fifteen clubs have already signed up for the Servicemaster T20 Devon Cup, 22 are pencilled into the Corinthian Cup for B-D Division sides and 15 have expressed an interest in playing in the new T20 cup competition for club from the E-H Divisions.